Lee Hall Reservoir
Newport News city County, Virginia390 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Lee Hall Reservoir. Here is what has been measured.
- Mesotrophic
- Impaired · Metals (other than mercury)
- 33 ft max depth
Lee Hall Reservoir in Newport News city County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 4.8 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 5.8 µg/L. Surface area: 390 acres.
Lee Hall Reservoir is a 390-acre mesotrophic lake in Newport News city County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 33 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2025-09-25. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyLow algae
Based on clarity and algae readings from past sampling — there is no live water temperature and a current cyanobacteria reading for this lake. Check your state or county health department before you swim.
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Lee Hall Reservoir is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for metals (other than mercury), oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Lee Hall Reservoir is safe to swim in today is a call for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Lee Hall Reservoir
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Lee Hall Reservoir, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Murky, only visible to about 4.8 ft. Phosphorus 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 5.8 µg/L. TSI 52.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 4.8ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 30µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 5.8µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 52 | Mesotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Moderate nutrients, good water quality
Ask about Lee Hall Reservoir
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~33 ft est.
Surface area
390 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Lee Hall Reservoir.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
8 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
3.2 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
23 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
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Fishing Lee Hall Reservoir
Water Quality Trend: Worsening
Based on 5 years of monitoring (2013–2025).
Water clarity
Stable5 years
Phosphorus
Stable+0.5 µg/L/yr5 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+0.36 µg/L/yr5 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Lee Hall Reservoir is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Lee Hall Reservoir Dam, built primarily for water supply on the Warwick River; gravity-type dam, 24 ft tall and 1,420 ft long.
- Surface area
- 390 ac
- Normal storage
- 3,063 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 4,640 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 15.9 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- City of Newport News Waterworks Department;City of Newport News Waterworks Department;City of Newport News Waterworks Department
All listed purposes: Water Supply;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA700001 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Lee Hall Reservoir is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2022 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 5).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Aquatic life, Other.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit VAT-G11L_LHR02A20 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Newport News city County
Frequently asked questions about Lee Hall Reservoir
Where is Lee Hall Reservoir?
- Lee Hall Reservoir is a lake in Newport News city County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Lee Hall Reservoir?
- Lee Hall Reservoir in Newport News city County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 4.8 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 5.8 µg/L. Surface area: 390 acres.
Is Lee Hall Reservoir safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Lee Hall Reservoir is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for metals (other than mercury), oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Lee Hall Reservoir?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Lee Hall Reservoir, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 33 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 390 acres.
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Where this data comes from
292 measurements from 2 monitoring stations, 2013–2025. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB292 samples · 2013–2025
Analytical methods
- Tyler, John. 1968. The secchi disk, Limnology and Oceanograpy, 13(1):1-6.
- Total Phosphorus After Block Digestion
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
- 2130 B ~ Nephelometric Method
Monitoring station identifiers (2)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)